2021.09.10 21:02
The United States is weaker, more divided, and less respected than it was two decades ago, and we have surrendered the unchallenged preeminence we then enjoyed. Although our response to 9/11 is not solely responsible for these negative developments, it has certainly contributed to them.
*I think the U.S. peaked in the 1960s. Since then, she had been losing strength rather
slowly. But she became the sole superpower at the end of the 20th century when USSR
collapsed. At the dawn of the 21st century, 9.11 occurred. It was the beginning of
rapid national decline domestically as well as internationally because of policy
mistakes. I would like to blame two GOP presidents; Bush and Trump.
2021.09.11 07:08
2021.09.11 07:16
Such beautiful weather here at the Eastern Seaboard like Autumn through this weekend but simply cannot enjoy because it is too painful to watch and listen all day for the 20th Anniversary of 9-11. So, I plan to go down to stay at my daughter's weekend retreat house next to the Bay away from the TV till Monday. But it is a sheer agony to erase/block my brain to bring so many memories back 20years ago every second! Simply I can't!!! Indeed, I spent the whole morning talking about how we encountered Sept 20, twenty years ago over the breakfast table with my wife and we are so grateful we were lucky we were not a victim of these Wahabi evils. As a matter of fact, my first daughter, YoonYoung was a junior partner of Wilmer-Hale then and had to make a day trip to New York from Washington DC every Tuesday to join the meeting at the World Trade Center! But thank God, she skipped the trip to New York on that particular Tuesday, Sept 11, 2001, to World Trade Center where they also had an office so that she narrowly escaped such tragedy.
BB
2021.09.11 07:59
Thank God, Dr. Lee! How lucky your daughter was! But I am sorry to
tell you that her grandchildren may not be so lucky. The U.S. will be 250 years
old in 2026 and the average age of an empire is 250 years.
https://www.times-standard.com/2017/06/28/the-average-age-of-an-empire-a-mere-250-years/
The living standard of average Americans is nowhere near that of the 1960s. Influence
of American power in the world has been shrunken significantly. Most of all its credibility
is near the bottom.
American government and the politicians lied so much to the public that mistrust is pervasive.
Misinformations brainwashed common people so much that they lost the ability to judge properly
for the common good. They form the mass of the lowest common denominator who has the
voting rights and are poised to bring down the foundation of American democracy. They almost
succeeded with Trump and they are solidifying again. They became stupid enough to deny mask
mandate and vaccine mandate but they have the power to change the government to their own.
They don't even know it will destroy themselves. The last question is, " Is America really an empire?"
2021.09.11 08:27
Yes, indeed, Dr. Ohn, we were simply lucky! Whenever we should look back through the last 20 years, we shiver, more grateful than ever to our luck!
But I was in Rome on that day/moment around 2:00 PM (Rome time) which was about 8:00 AM in New York, just finishing my lecture and about to come down from the podium. But on one glance from the podium, I was able to notice a noisy group of people rushing in and out through the door to make me wonder. Soon I found such disaster in New York through the TV outside of the Convention Hall where a big crowd was watching the scenes. Though I had to stay through the Meeting till 5:30 PM, I was quite distracted by this disaster, but I didn’t know my daughter would visit World Trade Center on that day for their weekly meeting till I got back to the hotel room to listen to my wife. Apparently, my wife was with two other speakers’ wives in the city when Nicoletta, wife of Raul Mattassi, got a call from her son at Milan telling the story so that she was able to get the first-hand information. And soon my daughter called her into the Hotel room to let us know she is safe because she didn’t go to New York on that day!!!!
Anyhow, I lived in Seoul in 2001 and was in Rome on Sept 11 so that my feeling about this disaster was not that intense though I live in Washington DC all along, driving by Pentagon infrequently. And today is the first time to stay in the U.S. for the Anniversary - on the 10th Anniversary, we were at Valparaiso, Chile as well-.
BB
2021.09.11 08:04
I cannot help but have to tell you about the grievance I shared with one of my closest colleagues/friend Bob Hobson of New Jersey Med School, who lost his son on Sept 11, who had an office at World Trade Center and failed to escape. A few months after Bob lost his only child through Sept 11, Bob wrote me he plans to come to Japan and wishes to extend his trip to Seoul – I was in Seoul at that time – to see my program at Samsung Medical Center. I was so delighted to accommodate his plan to visit me in Seoul so that we could have private time to share his grievance. When he arrived in Seoul, Bob looked so pale and tired that I thought he was simply exhausted through such a long trip to cross the Pacific. But I never dreamed this tragedy could make such a robust healthy man get sick suddenly with bone marrow to stop making the red blood cell, which I learned later. Though Bob died soon by a freak accident, I cannot help but blame on this tragedy/grievance to induce 'literally bone marrow dried up ( like old Korean saying 피가 말라버려!!!)'. This Anniversary brings my memory back on him again. Poor Bob, I miss dearly!
Two GOP Presidents, Bush, and Trump are now judged as the worst and also the second-worst POTUS in U.S. history by historians!!! Indeed, this mother fucker Tramp is the last nail on the coffin for the GOP and they are now a mere collection of human garbage. But the problem is now these human trashes are getting bigger and bigger to give the harm to all of us through the COVID pandemic in particular. So sad and so mad how this thing could happen here in the U.S. There got to be a law to ban all the GOPs, unvaccinated human trashes, to use the hospital and let them die with no waste precious medical resources!!!
BB Lee